It’s possible that the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education will ask Pagosa Springs voters to increase their property tax rate this coming November, to allow ASD to abandon the Pagosa Springs Elementary School facility…
…and also to abandon two buildings and the surrounding facilities at Pagosa Springs Middle School…
…and spend perhaps $220 million to build a new PreK-8 facility west of town on Vista Boulevard.
The facilities that would be abandoned consist of functioning classrooms, extensive internet infrastructure, gymnasiums, art studios, music rooms, cafeterias with kitchens, libraries, playgrounds, relatively new roofs, safety and security improvements, parking lots, and access to nearby municipal parks and library facilities.
The existing facilities are not overcrowded, and ASD enrollment has been dropping in recent years.
The existing facilities have maintenance issues and could use some upgrades — but nowhere near $220 million worth. At their core, the Elementary School and the two Middle School buildings and the surrounding infrastructure are functional as places where education can take place in a safe and healthy atmosphere. They are places where children have been successfully taught for decades.
About a decade ago, ASD authorized a public, tuition-free charter school — the K-8 Pagosa Peak Open School — to open its doors in a former office building near Walmart.
PPOS was originally proposed by a group of parents, as a place where innovative educational methods could be tested and tried. The office building and surrounding landscape has been modified, little by little, to better serve PPOS families, as grants and funds have become available. Over $2 million has been raised through grants, and invested into safety and security upgrades, a full commercial kitchen, and a community-designed public playground open to the public outside of school hours.
It’s not inexpensive maintaining school facilities — be it a former office building or an older school building. One might, in fact, think that building a brand new facility would reduce maintenance costs, and of course, initially that is true. Unfortunately, we live in a world where new buildings do not necessarily hold up as well over the long run as older buildings.
When the Colorado Department of Education inspected ASD facilities in 2009, the building with the least number of issues was the Middle School 5-6 building, constructed in 1924. The building with some of the most expensive issues was the Pagosa Springs High School, built just 12 years prior, in 1997.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer Board member for Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) and infrastructure upgrades at PPOS could conceivably be included in a future ASD bond proposal, to our school’s obvious benefit. From that perspective, I am generally supportive of a future bond issue that has a good chance of getting voter approval. This editorial expresses only my own personal opinions, however, and not necessarily the opinions of the PPOS Board or staff.
ASD staff and School Board have been pursuing a new K-8 facility since 2010, but have not yet convinced the taxpaying public to fund the project. Over the past two years, Superintendent Rick Holt has been leading a process to place a bond issue on the ballot in 2026 or possibly 2027. Extensive planning and public involvement has taken place. A survey of likely voters took place last summer, and another voter survey will take place later this month, with a presentation of survey results scheduled to be presented to the School Board in mid-July.
The survey will be conducted by New Bridge Strategy, with the questions designed in collaboration with ASD staff.
One question that will almost definitely not be included in the survey (according to the School Board discussion on June 3):
“Given the level of uncertainty in the American economy at the moment, and the uncertainty in the Pagosa Springs economy, would you likely vote in favor of a smaller property tax increase to help maintain our current facilities?”
As the consultants explained on June 3, if you give the public a choice between a new $220 million school facility and, say, a $20 million temporary tax increase to repair and upgrade our existing facilities… well… of course, the public will choose the cheaper option.
Who wouldn’t? Especially in a time of economic uncertainty.
So although those two options are very real options, the consultants discouraged the School Board from allowing the smaller tax increase to be included in a survey.
And more importantly, to never allow such an option to appear on the ballot.
However, the School Board has not yet made a decision about how to move forward in a time of economic uncertainty. They’ve only heard recommendations from their consultants that the public not be given a choice.
I’m a business owner and well aware that the owners of commercial property in Pagosa Springs pay a property tax rate that’s four times the rate paid by residential properties.
If our ASD School Board determines that this might not be the best time to impose a sizable property tax increase on local businesses… perhaps a much more conservative ask… a modest and temporary increase to the Mill Levy Override (MLO), for making urgent repairs and upgrades to existing facilities… would be more acceptable to local property owners?
We’ve seen evidence that the Archuleta County community supports our public schools, in particular through the creation of the MLO in 2018 and its renewal in 2023. It’s not too late for the School Board to ask for an increase to the MLO…
…instead of asking, in a time of economic anxiety, for an (uncomfortably large?) property tax increase for a new facility.